When an individual who wants to use the Internet connects an information terminal to the Internet, the connection is made through an Internet access service provider (hereinafter, also referred to simply as a “provider”) in most cases. When the Internet services started being prevalent, the number of providers that is accessible from the existence region of the information terminal possessed by an individual Internet user was restricted, while recently it becomes possible to access many providers from the same region, thereby diversifying choices. Meanwhile, chances of using the Internet services are increasing with the prevalence of the Internet.
However, in most cases, the individual who wants to use the Internet services utilizes general telephone subscription lines to connect the information terminal to the Internet. Therefore, when using the Internet, the Internet user is required to pay an access fee charged by the provider and a usage charge for the general telephone subscription line. When these are simply added together, a high usage charge is required.
Then, to reduce the usage charge for Internet, for example a provider provides service which varies a charging fee that is the basis of the access fee charged by the provider, according to an accumulated access time when a customer uses the Internet. Another provider provides service which varies the charging fee according to a time zone in which the customer uses the Internet. In addition, another provider provides service which makes the Internet access service usage charge free by compulsorily showing advertisements to the customers. There is also a case where one provider provides these plural kinds of service at the same time.
However, as a consequence that plural providers start to provide services according to the plural charging methods which are set respectively on their own terms, the Internet users have trouble in constantly checking and weighing information on charging systems which are provided by many providers, to utilize the most inexpensive or the most suitable access service for them.
Then, in order to cope with such diversification of usage charges and provision methods of Internet access service, for example some persons privately open web sites on which a comparison table of information on charging systems, Internet access methods and the like, provided by many providers is made and the comparison table is provided occasionally to the Internet users. Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2939723, it is becoming possible to construct a system which enables free selection of providers, kinds of access services or the like, by adopting a charging system which makes a charging server and an authentication server work together.
However, it is hard for the Internet users to manage whole information on charging systems of many providers in real time by themselves only with the above-described charging systems or comparison of information on Internet access methods, charging methods or the like, provided on the privately-opened Web sites.
That is, the individual Internet users (customers) cannot change the Internet access service occasionally according to their usage.
Further, when a provider starts new Internet access service, the customers who have been informed of the start of the service cannot utilize the new Internet access service unless they change various settings for utilizing the Internet access service themselves, and the change of the Internet access service cannot be done in a short time.
Further, on the provider side, when customer utilization concentrates on specific Internet access service, a provision method of the Internet access service cannot be changed according to a utilization state of the network and thus the network cannot be utilized effectively. Further, since an advertisement distribution method and a charging method associated with the Internet access are somewhat fixed, the advertisement distribution method and the charging method cannot be changed according to the customers needs.
The present invention is made to solve the above-mentioned problems and has for its object to provide an Internet charging system in which information on the Internet charging system is collectively managed by a charging database, whereby a customer can select desired information from information on an Internet access method, a method for displaying information for charging and a charging method associated with the Internet access, and on the terminal server side, a provision method of Internet access service, an advertisement distribution method and a charging method associated with the Internet access can be changed according to a state of Internet usage by the customer and the result of the customer selection.